Appliances That Vansihed After A Short Time

I've had a cute little microwave made by sharp that i bought in '86 called a half pint. I've had it in my office for years and have been puzzled why so many times someone has asked if I wanted to sell it. Turns out they're unobtanium.

There were many small, low powered microwaves available that were too small for a regular plate, but ideal for warming up leftovers, soups, or prepackaged food. They seem to be all gone now and there's void that apparently has a niche among RV's,Boaters,and Truckers that used or remaining ones now fetch pretty high prices if they still work. The latter version of mine as NOS sells for around $150-200 on E-bay and Amazon. That has me wondering about some recent appliances that seemingly fell out of favor for one reason or another:

Long Slot Toasters For a while, you barely find a regular type. Many used the quartz elements that are now rare in toasters and back to regular heaters.

Braun type cone filter coffee makers. The old basket types were getting hard to find for a while and most every one you seen in the stores used the expensive cone filters or those washable gold tone inserts. By the time the filters went generic and priced accordingly, the cone coffee makers started to vanish. Maybe some are still around.

Rotisseries. They're still around, but mostly by mail order and infomercials. You don't see the stacks of Ronco's or George Foreman's in the brick and mortars in several varieties anymore.

Countertop ice makers. For a while, most any appliance section had about 5 or more models on the floor around here. I've only seen a mini versions that makes cocktail ice sold more like a bar novelty.

Multi-cookers. These have been around forever peaking during the late 50's and early 60's. They made a resurgence about 6-8 years ago with Presto at the forefront. Basically a pot with a built in heating element that could be used for frying, pot cooking, steaming, some had crock inserts doubling as a slow cooker.

Re:Appliances That Vansihed After A Short Time2013/03/25 22:11:27
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Have the electric skillets fell out of favor up in the NE? Most displays here have about a half a dozen on display. I was admiring a giant Presto a few weeks ago that's like a giant, 15" Stainless Texas skillet. I have a tiny one I kept at the office that I bought in Big Lots about 5 years ago. Still see those around under different names.

Haven't seen a crepe maker in the store for a while. Those didn't last too long, nor did the commercial crepe stations. Last one that I seen was in a gas station.

Re:Appliances That Vansihed After A Short Time2013/03/25 22:21:43
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I haven't noticed any in quite some time. I was never allowed to get near the electric skillet in the 70s ...so maybe I should investigate the displays. It must have been very useful because it was used quite often.

Re:Appliances That Vansihed After A Short Time2013/03/25 23:42:47
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We have an electric skillet purchased about a year ago and just purchased a long slot toaster by Sunbeam about 6 weeks ago. I will also mention electric carving knives which aren't very prevalent, maybe they never were.

Re:Appliances That Vansihed After A Short Time2013/03/26 00:37:50
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Vegamatics are still around. Odd you mentioned it. I just returned from Walgreen's to pick up a prescription and seen one on the end of the as-seen-on-tv section. From what I read a few years ago, if you have an old one, hold on to it as the new ones aren't built very well, perform poorly, and break easily.

Electric knives I've still seen as of recent. Most all families around here do a pork shoulder once a week, so that's probably why they're still on the shelves here, otherwise it's probably a Christmas and Thanksgiving only item. Spiral hams took over Easter.

Stick Blenders are starting to thin out on the shelves. There used to be many on display, now it's usually just the KA and the Cuisinart. One appliance I can't live without even though they've been mentioned as one of the least used kitchen tools along side the bullet/personal blenders as a use-once-after Christmas item. Maybe they are big in europe in the all plastic versions, but unfortunately they aren't suitable for immersion above 140 degrees or less which defeats the purpose that I see use for one pureeing sauces and soups. That's probably why the KA and Cuisinart still have market share with metal shafts immersable in liquids at near boiling temps. I bought the whisk attachment for my KA which is equally wonderful and works better then one on a hand mixer.

Re:Appliances That Vansihed After A Short Time2013/03/26 08:57:29
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Not food related, but I've seen only one and they are no more. It is a power screwdriver made by Coleman (the camping gear folks). Odd thing about this one is that it has no batteries and therefore none of the problems related to batteries. It charges in 90 seconds to full charge and the batteries don't develop a memory. How you ask? It has what they call a 'power cell' but is really a capacitor. Can you say 'Back to the Future'; as in 'flux capacitor'. Mine works well but apparently they suffered from quality problems. Great concept; wish they perfected it.

Re:Appliances That Vansihed After A Short Time2013/03/26 09:29:23
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We are in the market for a new refrigerator for the first time in about 15 years. We are looking for a higher end larger capacity refrigerator that DOES NOT HAVE: Side by Side Doors (we prefer top freezer) Built in thru the door ice maker (not pratical, we'd need major plumbing to run a line to link up to it, plus the ice maker is just something to go wrong anyway). Just try and find one like that these days. Everything we see are basic white lower price budget models.

Re:Appliances That Vansihed After A Short Time2013/03/26 12:48:42
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When I was in law school, someone gave me a mini deep fryer. The only thing I ever used it for was to fry up shrimp chips from the Chinese market. It was just too small to cook anything of any size.

However, I still use an electric skillet that my mom gave me when I was in college (in the early 1970s). It's a Sunbeam. I love it, but it is starting to heat erratically. Plus, I dented the lid in a move years ago and it doesn't fit firmly over the pan, which is a pain if you are frying chicken. It's hard to find an electric skillet that doesn't have non-stick lining. I don't want a non-stick lining!

Re:Appliances That Vansihed After A Short Time2013/03/27 16:44:14
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I haven't seen one in ages and didn't know they've been brought back. Bad memories after my divorce back in the 70's. I bought a Sears model. That was my stove, griddle, & toaster. I cooked my breakfast on it and also made my supper on it like a two sided griddle. For some reason, lots of folks called them "hamburger cloppers" I don't know if that was a trade name of one of major brands that was generically applied or if it was a regional thing. Sure was a lot of different brands on the market. I remember seeing almost an entire isle side of them in some of the chains with features such as double, reversable/removable griddles, meat forming wells to make perfectly round burgers, & temperature controls. Unless you had one that the griddles were removable, they were a pain to clean as they were not submersible. They also made huge messes with a grease puddle pouring out at they cooked as most had no containment outside of the main cooking well.

The Contact Grills that replaced them got part of it right, but most didn't have a flat griddle option and were still pain to clean. That's another device there were so many varieties of that's starting to wane, but you can still find a few like Geore Foreman's. You don't see that many of them anymore and the Panini grills seem to be taking their place and a few tabletop griddles that seem to come and go over the years are still around and never seem to quite disappear.

Table Top Wok

There's something that was designed for failure. Max you can get out of a household 1110V receptical is 15-20A with the top end of most any appliance limited to around 1800W. No way you can really do any real wok cooking at that wattage even in small amounts. For a while there were a lot of electic woks on the shelves. Haven't seen one for a while except by mail order either.

SeamusD

My grandparents had a Presto Quick Burger single hamburger press cooker that I used the heck out of when I was a kid. Apparently they still make them.